bentley woodbuey



TATES UNITED PATENT FFICE.

MODE OF FRINTING PHQTO'GRAPHS.

Specification forming part of'Letters Ictent No. 52,.Q03, dated February 20, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known um, I, 'w. B. woommm, 6:" Manchester, county of Lancaster, in'the King- ,dom of Great Britainami Ireland, have invented 2. Mode of Producing Surfaces in Intaglio.

purpose of producing rilievo orintaglio in anyv plastic or fusible materials, so as to have the appearance of a has-relief or intaglio, and the invention is particularly useful in producing copies of such articles.

Theim irovementsconsistin roduciu first a mold oousistingof graduated thicknesses of material, which are obtained or rendered from and are a transcript of the light and shadows in a photographic hegative. This first mold, when procured, is to be electrotyped-i. a, covered .by a metallic deposit-by ordinary means, and from such metallic mold or pattern so produced castings may be obtained in any fusible or plastic material. I would remark that the principle of producing a first mold having varying thicknesses obtained from or rendered by the lights and shadows ofa photo. graphic negative constitutes the chief feature of this part of the invention, which being accomplished, the formation of copies or reverses Iherefrom in any material becomes simple. I

will therefore proceed to describe one method of obtaining such first mold.

A solution of gelatine and sugar, in proportion of about one part of sugar to eight parts of gelatine, is to be dissolved and clarified with albumen (white of eggs) andtbenfiltered. When required for use add to every ounce of the above a solution in water of ten grains of bichromate of ammonia, and when these two solutions have combined and are nearly cool spread them on a sheet of clean glass to the thickness of about one-eighth of an inch and place away for five or six hours to cool and solidify, in which'state cut the film or coating into pieces and strip the pieces from the glass.

Thepolished side of the solidified film or coating which has been in contact .with the glass must now be laid-on the negative, excluding all air-bubbles. The negative with the gelatine attached must then be placed in the focus of the condenser of asolar camera or other condenser of the rays, by the use of which the lines in the negative are produced as clearly at the back of the gclatine as the front, the yellow color of the bichromat-iz'ed gelatiue not allowing the rays to penetrate too far; or another mode of operating upon the mixture of gclatine and bichromate may be adopted, and in some cases will be found preferable. The mixture maybe spread to the depth of a sixteenth or an eighth of an inch on pieces of talc vlightly secured onto a plate ot glass, and when, the gelatiue is sutiieiently set the talc and gelatine may be stripped from the glass and the tale side placed in contact with the photographic negative, through which negative sunlight is caused to pass in nearly parallel rays by means of a condensing-lens, the negative being placed at a distance of from eighteen to twenty-four inches beyond the focus of the saidleus, or the solution of gelatine and bichromate may be thoroughly dried in a desiccatingbox and used in a dried state without the talc.

When the solidified gelati e shall'have been sufiiciently exposed-say in from half an hour to an hour-which may be known by the back of the gelatine being slightly depressed in the high lights of the negative, the gelatine should be lifted from the negative and fastened by indie-rubber cement to a piece of stout card coated with lac-varnish and held under a stream of hot water until the parts not acted upon are washed away; or when tale is used the tale holding thegelatinous coating must be placed in warm water to dissolvethe soluble portions. An image is thus produced in which the lights are depressed and the shadows raised. The gelatine must then be allowed to get surface-dry, and in cases where tale is employed, as above described, the tale to which it is attached should be secured to a plate of glass of somewhat larger dimensions and retained in its position by strips of copper pass ing around the edges, to one of which strips a copper wire is to be attached. The surfaee'of the gelatine is then to be brushed over or otherwise coated with bronze-powdeaplum- 2 cases bago, or silver precipitated in metallic form. It may then be subjected to the process of electrotyping by placing it/in a solution of sulphate of copper, the wire then being connected to'an ordinary electrotyping-battery, where it is allowed to remain until it becomes coated with copper to the thickness of about the sixteenth of an inch or more. When the copper coating is removed from the gclatine the mold is obtained, which may then be mounted in lead or guttapercha (which latter I prefer) and used for the purpose of printing or making impressions on paper-or other material by the use of the aforesaid intaglio-mold. It is to be mounted in gutta-percha and placed, intaglio surface upward, on the bed of an ordinary letter-press or othersuitable press. A small quantity ofsemi-transparent inl; made oi gelatine and'any coloring-matter is to be poured onto the center of the mold, and the paper or material to be impressed, having been previously ertended on a plate of glass or other hard smooth surface on the upper part of the press, is to be broughtinto contact therewith and subjected to sufficient pressure to expel the surplus color from the edges of the mold. When this has been removed the pressure may be taken off and a correct copy or print of the article or design originally photographed will be found printed in slight'reliet' on the paper.

The use of the semi-transparent inks surmounts a. great difficulty existing in all previous attempts at similar descriptions of printing, as by using opaque inks the slightest'de' pressions in the mold give the same depth of color or shade as the deeper impressions.

I would also remark that if ceramic colors are employed the impressions may be made and burned into porcelain or ceramic wares to ornament the same.

By casting or otherwise taking a metallic reverse of the copper mold previously prepared from a. design drawn on paper a stamp and matrix may he obtained for embossing paper or other material; or the matrix mav be used as a seal for impressing wax.

When the processris employed for the purpose of obtaining copies of med al's, cos-reliefs, the, a cast from the object must be made in asolid semi-transparent material, such as white wax, and by photographing the same by light transmitted through the casting a negative may be obtained which, when treated 5 here inbefore described, will produce a miniature copy of the original. To produeea has-relief or intaglio I take a solution of any transparenteolor in water of such a strength that at three or fourinches deep it may be opaque, and let the has-relief lie in this, so that by photot 1e prominent parts are the lightest and the farthest parts the darkest. 15y printing from this negative amold in gelatine will he the result, from which a casting taken in plaster or fusible material will be a copy of the original.

I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent/- lhe use, in connection with the plate herein described, or with any engraved plate, of semitra-nsparent or partially-trensparent inks, substantially in the manner and for the purpose specified.

In testimony whereoi'l have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesscs.

W. B. WUODBURY.

Witnesses:

JNo. L. DAvtns, Tnos. Wmernr.

graphing this a negative obtained in which 

